Yongwang Mountain is a mountain in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

Yangcheon District The Yangcheon District (Yangcheon-gu) is a ''gu'', or district, of Seoul, South Korea, located on the southwest side of the Han River. At the centre of this district is the Mok-dong area, which is home to numerous shopping outlets, bars and rest ...

Mok-dong Mok-dong is a ward of Yangcheon-gu, located in the west of Seoul, South Korea. Commonly referred to as a "special education district", the upper-middle/upper-class neighborhood is best known for its abundance of private institutions, or Hagwons, as ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. Its height is , and it is also called Umji Mountain.

Name

The mountain is called Umji Mountain because it is located at the first entrance of the field that is capable of accommodating a thousand homes, and the village behind the mountain is called Umjimi Village.

Legend

A legend associated with the place is as follows. An old man who had the family name

Park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

requested his kids to never tell anyone that he died and to do not tie his body with ropes, but the kids ignored his request. After that, the rumor about the will spread among the village, which led to an investigation by local officials, who found that the coffin of the tomb of the old man was empty. The local officials soon noticed that a dragon was wiggling all tied up, which they killed soon after. Rumors after this incident explained that the late park wanted to be a dragon king but was left to ruins since the kids refused to accept his request. This led to the placed named Yongwang mountain where yongwang stands for

Dragon King The Dragon King, also known as the Dragon God, is a Chinese water and weather god. He is regarded as the dispenser of rain, commanding over all bodies of water. He is the collective personification of the ancient concept of the '' lóng'' in Ch ...

in Korean. Another variation of the story tells that park was intentionally kind to the people to be reborn as a king, but was not able to fulfill his desires due to a fault that he mistreated a beggar. The second type of story that is associated with the place is related with a heavenly official, where the said official falls in love with a fairy betraying the

Jade Emperor The Jade Emperor or Yudi ( or , ') in Chinese culture, traditional religions and myth is one of the representations of the first god ( '). In Daoist theology he is the assistant of Yuanshi Tianzun, who is one of the Three Pure Ones, the three ...

and secretly marrying with the fairy and lived in the mountain. The jade emperor was thus furious and punished them, which led to the official turn into a

imugi Korean dragons are legendary creatures in Korean mythology and folklore. The appearance of the dragon reflects its relation to its East Asian counterparts, including the Chinese dragons. Korean dragons Whereas most dragons in European mytholog ...

(a mythical being in korean mythology that wants to be a dragon but cannot be with certain limitations) and the fairy became Seonyu Peak. The imugi turned official visited Seonyu Peak but could not go because the

was stepping on his tail. Thus the tears of the imugi is told to be the

Anyangcheon The Anyangcheon is a river in Gyeonggi-do and Seoul, South Korea. It has its source on the slopes of Mount Gwanggyo in the city of Uiwang and flows north, through the city of Gunpo, where a major cleanup operation saw several species of birds re ...

river, and the nail scratches became the pits which are related with the flood.

Festival

The mountain is known for its annual sunrise festival at the Yongwang Gazebo (Yongwangjeong) during the

New Year New Year is the time or day currently at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner. In the Gregorian calendar, the most widely used calendar system to ...

References

Mountains of South Korea {{seoul-geo-stub